WWE NXT TakeOver: WarGames 2018 preview

NXT’s latest live special, TakeOver: WarGames 2, will come our way Saturday, Nov. 17 at 7PM Eastern on WWE Network, so we’re here to help you get ready for it.

The black-and-yellow brand will ride into Los Angeles’ Staples Center with a bunch of long-running rivalries and hot angles. TakeOver: WarGames 2 Those programs lead to matches which sometimes need more time to tell their stories – the Dusty Rhodes-created concept which gives the show its name being a prime example. So for the first time, a TakeOver is set to feature only four matches rather than the customary five.

Triple H explained the decision as one made from the gut; he and the rest of his team don’t want to get tied to a specific format. That sounds great! Story should dictate these things, or at least be given priority over other market factors. The concern, at least for this writer, is that with only four matches to book and 2.5 – 3 hours to work with, we might get a string of Hunter & Shawn booked epics that bleed into one another. A strength of recent TakeOvers has been the way they’ve built to an emotional crescendo provided by Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano main events. With those two separated and 3⁄4 of the line-up paying off long-running feuds, we could be in for a long, draining night.

Fortunately, there will be lots of great wrestling mixed in, and a bat$#!+ crazy spectacle in a giant cage to wrap it all up.

We’ll see how it all shakes out when NXT’s twenty-third Network special hits our screens tomorrow night. Now let’s get ready – match by match.